Detection of Tones in the Absence of External Masking Noise. I. Effects of Signal Intensity and Signal Frequency

Watson, Charles S.; Franks, John R.; Hood, Donald C.

doi:10.1121/1.1913153

Cited by 51 publications

(41 citation statements)

References 4 publications

(4 reference statements)

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“…Although powerful, intrinsic uncertainty remains unpopular. One reason for this is Watson, Franks, and Hood's (1972) finding that psychometric functions for detecting pure tones in quiet were even steeper than those for detecting pure tones in noise. Legge, Kersten, and Burgess (1987) replicated Watson et al in the visual domain.…”

Section: Explaining the Dip: Sensory Thresholdsmentioning

confidence: 98%

The history of dipper functions

Solomon

2009

Attention, Perception & Psychophysics

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Dipper-shaped curves often accurately depict the relationship between a baseline or "pedestal" magnitude and a just-noticeable difference in it. This tutorial traces the 45-year history of the dipper function in auditory and visual psychophysics, focusing on when they happen, and why. Popular theories for both positive and negative masking (i.e. the "handle" and "dip," respectively) are described. Sometimes, but not always, negative masking disappears with an appropriate re-description of stimulus magnitude.

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Section: Explaining the Dip: Sensory Thresholdsmentioning

confidence: 98%

The history of dipper functions

Solomon

2009

Attention, Perception & Psychophysics

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“…However, the adults tended to yield thresholds slightly lower than the children's, although the differences are within the range of variability typically obtained in estimates of the thresholds of audibility (see Watson et al, 1972). Thresholds were between 5 and 12 dB greater than those for the comparable thresholds defined in the ANSI (1969) standard.…”

Section: Results Anddiscussionmentioning

confidence: 89%

“…Given the 4-dB step size of attenuation, one would expect a somewhat higher estimation of threshold than for procedures using smaller attenuation step sizes. According to the results of Watson et al (1972), these threshold values would have yielded d' values of 4.0 or more for highly trained adult observers in a nonadaptive, two-alternative, forced-choice task. '…”

Section: Results Anddiscussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A forced-choice adaptive procedure for measuring auditory thresholds in children

Yost

1978

Behavior Research Methods & Instrumentation

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A modification of the two-down/one-up tracking procedure was used to estimate thresholds of audibility in 46 children (ages 3 to 6 years) and 10 adults. A two-alternative forced-ehoice version (26 children, 5 adults) of this method was successful in estimating thresholds of audibility in 5-year-olds, but not in 3-and 4-year-olds. A single-interval version of the procedure was successful in estimating thresholds of audibility for all the children. Measures from the children of between-and within-subjects variability, psychometric functions, and response bias all indicate that the procedure enables one to estimate thresholds that are in close agreement with those obtained from adults and with results of other investigators.

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“…If, for example, a subject with normal hearing has the habit of responding to anything that vaguely resembles a tone, his thresholds measured by this method will be uniformly low in both ears, unless he deliberately chooses a different strategy for each ear, which is unlikely. It was demonstrated long ago (Watson, Franks, & Hood, 1972) that the entire usable range of the psychometric function for audibility in quiet can extend from a mere 3.5 dB (strictest criterion) to as much as 10 dB (laxest criterion), that is, it can cover the same range as the difference between detection thresholds corresponding to d' values of 4.0 and 0.1. Since subjects with normal hearing would be expected to differ from each other only with respect to their response criteria, pooling the audibility thresholds of 10 normal subjects who display a lax response criterion with those of 10 other normal subjects who use a conservative criterion should yield a high left-right correlation.…”

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confidence: 99%

In defense of the right and left audiograms: A reply to Coren (1989) and Coren and Hakstian (1990)

Divenyi

Haupt

1992

Perception & Psychophysics

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Coren (1989) noticed that the various air-conduction pure-tone thresholds obtained from one ear ofan individual in quiet tend to display a high correlation. In addition, Coren and Hakstian (1990) In two recent articles, Coren (1989) and Coren and Hakstian (1990) noted that pure-tone thresholds in one ear of a given individual (measured at 6 audiometric frequencies covering the five-octave range between 250 and 8,000 Hz), as well as pure-tone threshold estimates in the two ears of the same individual, exhibit a high degree of correlation. On the basis of this observation, these authors propose to replace, in group data, (1) the pure-tone thresholds obtained at the 6 frequencies for each ear of an individual with a single number representing their average, and (2) the pure-tone thresholds obtained in the two ears of each individual with a single number representing either the average threshold of the two ears or the average threshold in the better ear. In other words, these authors would like to substitute a single number for either one or both of the left and right audiograms every time the object of study is a group of individuals, rather than a single individual. Although it is undeniable that pure-tone audiometric thresholds obtained at different frequencies in one or both ears of an individual often show high positive zeroorder correlations, 1 there are several valid reasons for not collapsing the (usually 12) threshold values into one number. The following paragraphs represent an attempt to bringThe authors gratefully acknowledge comments by James Jerger and two anonymous reviewers on an earlier version of the manuscript. On Discounting Ears Headfirst: A Case Against "Counting Heads, Not Ears" Audiological research, as a matter of principle, is aimed at issues related to the hearing status, rather than that of the ears, of individuals. The measure that serves as the starting point (and, quite often, the only point) to determine an individual's hearing status is the audiogram, that is, estimation of pure-tone audibility thresholds in quiet at various frequencies (usually six). The overall hearing level and the shape of the right and left audiograms, as well as the difference between the two audiograms, provide information on the basis of which the audiologist can establish the hearing status of the individual. The audiograms and the assessment of hearing for each ear of the same individual can, and often do, differ. It is the audiological significance of differences between left and right thresholds at each frequency that constitutes the most powerful argument against Coren and Hakstian's (1990) suggestion-namely, to consider, in group data, only one threshold estimate per frequency (i.e., left-right average or one of the ears) instead of two. There are, however, additional reasons for arguing in favor of treating the two audiograms as separate data, even if thresholds measured at all frequencies in the two ears of each individual in a group were found to be correlated, and even if such a correlation had be...

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Detection of Tones in the Absence of External Masking Noise. I. Effects of Signal Intensity and Signal Frequency

Cited by 51 publications

References 4 publications

The history of dipper functions

The history of dipper functions

A forced-choice adaptive procedure for measuring auditory thresholds in children

In defense of the right and left audiograms: A reply to Coren (1989) and Coren and Hakstian (1990)

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